/huggingface-hub

description: Hugging Face Hub CLI (hf) — search, download, and upload models and datasets,
  manage repos, query datasets with SQL, deploy inference endpoints, manage Spaces
  and buckets.
version: 1.0.0
author: Hugging Face
license: MIT
tags:
- huggingface
- hf
- models
- datasets
- hub
- mlops

Kheish Compatibility

This skill is repo-local and stays inactive until explicitly activated.

When the original instructions refer to legacy tool names, use these Kheish mappings:

• `terminal` => `bash`
• `web_extract` => `web_fetch`, plus `web_search` when discovery is needed
• `search_files` => `grep_search` and `glob_search`
• `browser_*` tools require a browser-capable surfaced tool or MCP; if none is available, use the closest available surface and say so explicitly

When the instructions mention local helper files, resolve them from `${KHEISH_SKILL_DIR}`.

Hugging Face CLI (`hf`) Reference Guide

The `hf` command is the modern command-line interface for interacting with the Hugging Face Hub, providing tools to manage repositories, models, datasets, and Spaces.

> **IMPORTANT:** The `hf` command replaces the now deprecated `huggingface-cli` command.

Quick Start

• **Installation:** `curl -LsSf https://hf.co/cli/install.sh | bash -s`
• **Help:** Use `hf --help` to view all available functions and real-world examples.
• **Authentication:** Recommended via `HF_TOKEN` environment variable or the `--token` flag.

---

Core Commands

General Operations

• `hf download REPO_ID`: Download files from the Hub.
• `hf upload REPO_ID`: Upload files/folders (recommended for single-commit).
• `hf upload-large-folder REPO_ID LOCAL_PATH`: Recommended for resumable uploads of large directories.
• `hf sync`: Sync files between a local directory and a bucket.
• `hf env` / `hf version`: View environment and version details.

Authentication (`hf auth`)

• `login` / `logout`: Manage sessions using tokens from [huggingface.co/settings/tokens](https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens).
• `list` / `switch`: Manage and toggle between multiple stored access tokens.
• `whoami`: Identify the currently logged-in account.

Repository Management (`hf repos`)

• `create` / `delete`: Create or permanently remove repositories.
• `duplicate`: Clone a model, dataset, or Space to a new ID.
• `move`: Transfer a repository between namespaces.
• `branch` / `tag`: Manage Git-like references.
• `delete-files`: Remove specific files using patterns.

---

Specialized Hub Interactions

Datasets & Models

• **Datasets:** `hf datasets list`, `info`, and `parquet` (list parquet URLs).
• **SQL Queries:** `hf datasets sql SQL` — Execute raw SQL via DuckDB against dataset parquet URLs.
• **Models:** `hf models list` and `info`.
• **Papers:** `hf papers list` — View daily papers.

Discussions & Pull Requests (`hf discussions`)

• Manage the lifecycle of Hub contributions: `list`, `create`, `info`, `comment`, `close`, `reopen`, and `rename`.
• `diff`: View changes in a PR.
• `merge`: Finalize pull requests.

Infrastructure & Compute

• **Endpoints:** Deploy and manage Inference Endpoints (`deploy`, `pause`, `resume`, `scale-to-zero`, `catalog`).
• **Jobs:** Run compute tasks on HF infrastructure. Includes `hf jobs uv` for running Python scripts with inline dependencies and `stats` for resource monitoring.
• **Spaces:** Manage interactive apps. Includes `dev-mode` and `hot-reload` for Python files without full restarts.

Storage & Automation

• **Buckets:** Full S3-like bucket management (`create`, `cp`, `mv`, `rm`, `sync`).
• **Cache:** Manage local storage with `list`, `prune` (remove detached revisions), and `verify` (checksum checks).
• **Webhooks:** Automate workflows by managing Hub webhooks (`create`, `watch`, `enable`/`disable`).
• **Collections:** Organize Hub items into collections (`add-item`, `update`, `list`).

---

Advanced Usage & Tips

Global Flags

• `--format json`: Produces machine-readable output for automation.
• `-q` / `--quiet`: Limits output to IDs only.

Extensions & Skills

• **Extensions:** Extend CLI functionality via GitHub repositories using `hf extensions install REPO_ID`.
• **Skills:** Manage AI assistant skills with `hf skills add`.